The Chicago Humanities Festival is committed to creating and fostering interest in the humanities.

To this end, the Festival provides study guides to help teachers to bring the humanities into the classroom. Every year, the CHF brings an amazing array of authors, thinkers, and artists to Chicago.

We hope you will seize the opportunity to bring the excitement of their works and knowledge to your students.The following lesson plans, “Experimenting with ‘Reel Time’” and “La Jetée: A Lesson Plan,” appeared in the 2004 Chicago Humanities Festival spring study guide.

The Chicago Humanities Festival is grateful to foundations and individuals for their dedication to children and schools, and for their generous financial support of the Children’s Humanities Festival and of CHF education programs. The CHF receives major support for its education programs from Nuveen Investments, the Polk Bros. Foundation, the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, and the Albert Pick, Jr. Fund. We thank the Takiff Family Foundation, Virginia S. Gassel, and the Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust for making the Children’s Humanities Festival possible. Additional support for education programs is provided by Judy Neisser, Kraft Foods, and Target Stores.

The Chicago Humanities Festival also wishes to acknowledge the following people whose intellectual contributions and guidance have fostered the creation of the 2004 spring study guide: Mary T. Christel (Adlai E. Stevenson High School), Ted Latham (Watchung Hills Regional High School, Warren, New Jersey), Christopher Merrill (University of Iowa), and Cin Salach.

This guide was created by Christopher P. Swanson, education publications editor; assisted by Carolyn Sommers, education department intern; with additional support from CHF staff, including Greg Alcock, education program manager and Cris Kayser, vice president.

This document and other educational materials are electronically archived as PDF files at: http://www.chfestival.org/education.cfm?Action=EdLessons.

3. Time can also be lengthened or shortened by the duration of individual shots.

4. Analyzing Film Sequences

5. least?

6. Filmmaking Activities for Students

7. Creating a “Newsreel”

8. BBrriinngg tthhee cchhff iinnttoo tthhee CCllaassssrroooomm!!

9. The Narration

12. Pre-viewing Questions

13• Watch for images, such as these, that recall each other. What do they have in common? What is different?

14• At other times, the juxtaposition of images is “moment to moment,” such as when we see a series of images of the woman in bed, each image similar to the one that preceded it.

15. For Further Exploration

La Jetée bears some resemblance to film noir. For instance, a juxtaposition of “real” time and “remembered” time is a common feature of film noir, as is a narrator. As the term itself suggests, film noir is marked by photography with sharp contrasts between black and white. Look at a classic film noir such as Double Indemnity and compare it to La Jetée. La Jetée inspired the film 12 Monkeys, and may have inspired Terminator. Compare La Jetée to one of those films. In 1961, Hannah Arendt famously used the phrase “the banality of evil” while writing about the trial of Nazi SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann for crimes against the Jewish people. The phrase suggests that however monstrous his crimes, Eichmann himself was a dim and mild man. La Jetée was filmed the next year, and in the film, the man expected the head experimenter to be a mad scientist. “Instead, he met a reasonable man.” Learn more about Eichmann and his trial. How does La Jetée relate to World War II and its aftermath? . Many disturbing images by German artist Gottfried Helnwein are reminiscent of the experiments in La Jetée. Learn more about his work. One useful “official” image archive is the website: http://www.helnwein.com/werke/werke/home.html.